OK, for everyone reading this that has a flyable airplane and lives within a couple hundred miles of northeastern Minnesota, CALL IN SICK TOMORROW and fly up to the Arrowhead! 
I'm sitting here this evening in Grand Marais, listening to the sound of surf on the gravel beach, enjoying the mid-50 temperature, and thinking about the incredible views I had today. I left the Twin Cities in the morning, and flew up to visit relatives on the Iron Range. The colors were simply outstanding all the way. I landed at the old ancestral home in Tower, MN, where the pattern for runway 26 kind of wraps around a hill behind the town. The hill looked like it was on fire, the colors in the trees were so bright! (Yeah, I know, pictures are worth a thousand words, but I left my camera-to-PC cable at home.....sorry).
After a Minnesota lunch (for those not from God's Country, that is wild rice casserole, orange jello with little mandarin oranges in it, and rhubarb cake for desert - it's a Lake Wobegon thing!), I departed Tower, flew up over Ely, then down to the north Shore of Lake Superior, and up to Grand Marais. The color was even better than down south, the yellows giving way to much orange, and lots of red. With the clear blue skys tinting the waters of the many lakes a deep blue, it was just magnificent.
The Grand Marais airport is a ways out of town, up over the ridge, but I was able to talk one of the hotels on the lake into driving up to get me, and taking me back up in the morning. I can't imagine you'll find any hotel rooms on a weekend up here for another couple weeks however.
Tomorrow morning, I plan to fly down the North Shore to Duluth - with the sun from the east, the shore line should be intense! (Assuming, of course, the weather doesn't change, and I have to file IFR to get out.... )
From on the road....
Paul
I'm sitting here this evening in Grand Marais, listening to the sound of surf on the gravel beach, enjoying the mid-50 temperature, and thinking about the incredible views I had today. I left the Twin Cities in the morning, and flew up to visit relatives on the Iron Range. The colors were simply outstanding all the way. I landed at the old ancestral home in Tower, MN, where the pattern for runway 26 kind of wraps around a hill behind the town. The hill looked like it was on fire, the colors in the trees were so bright! (Yeah, I know, pictures are worth a thousand words, but I left my camera-to-PC cable at home.....sorry).
After a Minnesota lunch (for those not from God's Country, that is wild rice casserole, orange jello with little mandarin oranges in it, and rhubarb cake for desert - it's a Lake Wobegon thing!), I departed Tower, flew up over Ely, then down to the north Shore of Lake Superior, and up to Grand Marais. The color was even better than down south, the yellows giving way to much orange, and lots of red. With the clear blue skys tinting the waters of the many lakes a deep blue, it was just magnificent.
The Grand Marais airport is a ways out of town, up over the ridge, but I was able to talk one of the hotels on the lake into driving up to get me, and taking me back up in the morning. I can't imagine you'll find any hotel rooms on a weekend up here for another couple weeks however.
Tomorrow morning, I plan to fly down the North Shore to Duluth - with the sun from the east, the shore line should be intense! (Assuming, of course, the weather doesn't change, and I have to file IFR to get out....
)From on the road....
Paul
Last edited:
